The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said the money sent home by overseas Filipino workers reached US$2.7 billion in May

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has announced that remittances of overseas Filipino workers continued to rise in May. On Monday, BSP said remittances in May reached US$2.7 billion, a 6.1% increase on the same month last year, Rappler reported.

BSP said Filipino workers abroad sent a total of US$13.2 billion home from January to May, 4.4% more year-on-year. Remittances from land-based workers amounted to US$1.9 billion, while sea-based workers sent US$0.5 billion.

“Personal remittances during the period was driven by steady inflows from land-based overseas Filipino workers with work contracts of one year or more, which totaled US$10.2 billion, and compensation from sea-based workers and land-based workers with short-term contracts, which reached US$2.7 billion,” BSP said in a statement.

Most of the remittances came from Filipinos in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Joey Cuyegkeng, a senior economist at ING Bank Manila, said the remittances would not likely lessen the weakening of the peso as they cannot finance the Philippines’ trade deficit, Philippine News Agency reported.